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There are also 44 cabins designed especially for single travellers – and all cabins have free 24-hour room service.

SAGA

The 12-deck ship has four restaurants

DINING

The 12-deck ship has four restaurants, all complimentary, plus the decktop Beach Club where you can get free fish and chips or ice cream during the day.

The main dining room, Pole to Pole seats 620 but is cleverly divided into zones – Africa, Asia, Europe and the Americas – that each feel completely different so it’s like four restaurants instead of one.

Most of the tables are open seating unless you want to reserve a fixed seating table – whether for two or more.

East to West is a speciality Asian restaurant seating 64 and although you have to book there is no charge.

The Grill is a small informal dining venue for lighter meals, where you can watch your food being cooked in a show kitchen.

And Verandah is a more casual dining experience, with the option to eat outside on deck, offering waiter-served evening meals and a buffet lunch and breakfast.

There’s also possibly the best afternoon tea at sea, served daily in the Britannia Lounge.

SAGA

The main dining room, Pole to Pole seats 620

ENTERTAINMENT

For a small ship Saga Sapphire has plenty of places to either relax or join in onboard entertainment and it never seems crowded.

As well as serving afternoon tea the Britannia Lounge offers daytime dance classes, quizzes and occasional music recitals as well as evening shows from the ship’s theatre company and dancing to live music.

The musical shows fall short of West End standards but are entertaining and for those averse to song and dance there’s the atmospheric Aviator Lounge and Tommy Cooper-themed Cooper’s Bar, which comes with jokes and a piano.

SAGA

The Britannia Lounge

The Drawing Room is a lovely lounge, with a “pantry” area for tea and coffee any time and great seaday views from the wraparound windows.

The whole ship has a very British feel but nowhere more so than The Beach Club, a pool deck with striped deckchairs and beach huts where you can get free ice cream or sweets as well as a bag of fish and chips.

There’s also traditional shuffleboard plus crazy golf and space to stretch out on the top deck.

And if the weather is bad there’s an indoor pool and hot tub near the Aqua Spa, with steam rooms and sauna as well as paid-for beauty treatments and a hair salon.

SAGA

Saga Sapphire has plenty of places to relax

FACT BOX

Saga Sapphire sails return trips from Southampton and Dover, typically to the Canaries over winter and to Norway and the Baltic during the summer, with themed cruises such as The Isle Of Man And The TT in May 2018 and Edinburgh Fringe At Sea in August 2018.

Its 15-night Baltic Adventures leaves Dover on August 7, 2018, calling at Helsinki and St Petersburg but less well-known destinations such as Karlskrona in Sweden, Riga and Liepaja in Latvia and Gydnia in Poland, from £3,099 for two people sharing including chauffeur driven car to and from the ship plus optional travel insurance.